Description

Easton Press leather edition of Jay Monaghan's "Custer: The Life of General George Armstrong Custer," a COLLECTOR'S edition, one of the LIBRARY OF AMERICAN HISTORY series, Frontispiece portrait of Custer, published in 1986. Bound in brown leather, the book has decorative paper end leaves, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, a satin book marker, gold gilding on three edges ---in near Fine condition . COLLECTOR'S NOTES is included. George Armstrong Custer, who lived from 1839-1876, was a youthful major-general in the Civil War, having distinguished himself at the battles of GETTYSBURG and WINCHESTER and in the Shenandoah campaign. Having graduated from WEST POINT in 1861, the brave, dashing, hairy chested, drop-dead handsome soldier seemed charmed. With golden blonde hair curled over his collar of the non-regulation uniform, some twenty horses were shot out from under him. "The Boy General" went unscathed. He married beautiful ELIZABETH REED and although she was warned about the 'bad boy,' she fell passionately in love with him and remained faithful and supportive of him for the rest of her life---even though he was 'rumored' to have fathered children with Indian women and was often gone for long periods of time. Army life was hard and the suicide rate was high. Vicious punishment, loneliness, boredom, booze, fleas, maggoty bread, tarantulas, mosquitos, blizzards, deserts, psychotic sergeants, yipping savages and the lack of virtuous women made the situation worse. Any unattached female in the neighborhood of a fort was apt to be diseased. Custer tried to keep his men contented, organizing dances with men taking turns impersonating women. Connell writes: "Late in the afternoon of June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led two hundred and sixty-five soldiers of the U.S. Army's Seventh Cavalry into the valley of the LITTLE BIG HORN RIVER. Custer and his men were met with a combined force of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians that outnumbered them ten-to-one. The outcome: not one of those who charged down the Montana slope with Custer that day left the valley alive. The Sioux and Cheyenne Indian warriors defeated Custer and Marcus Reed's outmatched armies. On June 27, Lieutenant James H. Bradley, commander of Gibbon's scouts, had found all that was left of Custer's five troops. Armstrong's naked body was found on the highest point of the field---sitting between two dead soldiers. Tom Custer, terribly mutilated, had been scalped several times and his skull was crushed. His heart had been cut out. Keogh was identified by the crucifix he wore around his neck. His thick black hair, still parted in the middle, had not been "lifted" by the redskins. Two small wounds were found on Custer's body---a bullet hole through his left breast and another in his left temple. There were no powder marks. General Custer was reburied at WEST POINT on October 10, 1877. Libby Custer and members of Custer's family attended the service. Libby Custer, who spent the remainder of her life defending her husband's reputation, was buried beside her husband in 1933. 469 pages, including a Bibliography, and an Index. I offer Combined shipping.